Ike Base Alpha
by AnonFic
Summary: When Valentina (A very respected pilot) and Y/N (An engineer straight out of university) volunteer go on a 10 year mission to make a fuel base on Ike, their loneliness attract them away from their work and closer together...
1. Day 1

Day 1:

After months of planning, manufacturing and plotting the "Ike Base Alpha" mission is ready to be launched and waiting at the launch pad, all it needs are 2 pilots ready to spend 10 years on the rock orbiting the huge red orb known as Duna. Two Volunteers rose to the opportunity, Valentina kerman (one of Kerbin's finest astronauts) who will be flying the craft to Ike and [Y/N], a new engineer straight out of "KerDin Institute Of Engineering"... Your job was to manufacture the fuel for the rockets however the job was offered to you half way through the construction of the ship, the opportunity was too great to pass down. You plotted the launch day on your calendar and awaited with feelings of joy mixed with apprehension that sunk into your rapturous reverie. You didn't know what to expect once in space. Today was the day before the flight so you took some time to meet the person that you would be spending the next 10 years with, you still don't know why you put it off until this long. You make your way the KSC Employee Lounge where you find Valentina sitting on a couch in the cozy room examining schematics of the S1 SRB-KD25k Solid Rocket Booster that would be assisting your ascent. "Hey there! You're uh, Y/N, right?" Valentina said after taking a moment to look up and investigate the face that had appeared from behind the metal door. "Yes Sir" you said in a shy tone, after all you are directly in front of one of the most influential figures in the history of the space program, she had been on a dozen missions ranging from Mun to Minmus. Wait, did you just say Sir!? "Stop it with the formalities Y/N, we aren't in the military you know." She said in a joking tone mixed with a small laugh. "So, whats your story? I mean, you have no experience in space apart from about 3 months training right? Why did you join up to go on the first 10 year mission on Ike?". The question made your anxiety grow, this was the first time kerbals had been on other bodies other than Minmus or Mun. "I thought that space might be an interesting experience, and 10 years on a rock where no one has ever been before sounds like a hell of a thing to put on your CV." Valentina giggles slightly. You trade information about fuel production and staging but mainly just chatting about the mission as you discover that Valentina doesn't know what to expect either as all of her missions have been within the confines of Kerbin's gravitational sphere. After about half an hour of this you decide to get up and exit the room, you say that you need to do some research on Ike and know what to expect during launch. "See you at the launch Y/N" she smiles.


	2. Day 2

Day 2:

You wake up and run straight to the calendar, today was the day of the launch. As you are walking to the space suit room you briefly go over the mission schedule that you grabbed from your room. "Initiate standard launch procedure and go into orbit. Plot intersection orbit with Minmus and execute plotted maneuver then Rendezvous and dock with the Minmus Fuel Station, or MFS, and start collecting fuel for your ship to use. Undock and exit Kerbin's gravitational pull. Plot intersection orbit with Duna and execute the plotted maneuver, then once you have come close to Duna's gravitational pull Slow down and go into orbit around Duna. Plot intersection orbit with Ike and execute the plotted maneuver then go into orbit around Ike and find suitable place to land and land, then start mining and refining into fuel. The rest of the mission will consist of going into orbit to greet ships and refuel them, then using the left over ore to give yourself more fuel to get down and start mining again. You should arive at your target in about 3 years, however you will be awoken from your deep sleep to execute certain parts of the mission. Many things can go wrong once you have docked down on Ike, this is why you cannot go into deep sleep while on Ike" That was going to take time, 3 years to get to Duna and back? At least you'll be asleep all of that time. You arrive at the space suit room where you knock politely just in case Valentina hadn't put on the special cooling garment that apparently had to be worn according to the sign outside. When you hear no response, you decide to go in and get changed perceiving it as a sign that she hadn't arrived there yet. You get in and start taking off all of your clothes. You just finished this when you hear the old door creak open, it was Valentina. "I'm not finished getting changed!" you shouted in panic, You see her pupils pupils expand and her face go red as she quickly closes her eyes, just in time before any damage was done. "Shit, sorry, Y/N, should've knocked, uh... didn't see anything though" she uttered as she awkwardly stepped back through the door. About 10 minutes later you had completed the change and now in your spacesuit. You exited to see an embarrassed Valentina kerman sitting on the nearby bench. "First time walking in on someone getting changed into a spacesuit before?" you joked. She was glad you didn't take it seriously and apologized. After she got changed you and Valentina walked side by side down the hall and to the rocket, the press was there and took their pictures. You clambered into the MK 2 lander can where you would be spending the next 16 years of your life (The 10 years of your mission and the extra 3 years of deep sleep there and back). You get into the passenger seat, glad it's your fuel and not some incompetent idiot who made it. 5, you hear the count down start 4, you make sure you are buckled in to your seat belt extra tight. 3, you are filled with feelings of agitation. 2, your mind is filled with the things you've regretted with your life. 1, You close your eyes... Lift off! You hear the solid rocket boosters roar into action as they lift you into the air as you reach 200 m/h. Valentina, being experienced, is not phased by this at all and her laughs conceal your screams. About 4 minutes later, you were in orbit. It was a strange feeling, weightlessness, being able to fly around. You couldn't do it much for two reasons, one Valentina needed to concentrate, two the lander can was about the size of a three person inflatable swimming pool. After a few minutes of staring out into the vacuum of space, "Hey, Y/N, you should get strapped in again. we are gonna have to start the engines again soon". With a sign, you agree. You sit down and get strapped in as Valentina starts the engines. 3 minutes pass, "Hey, Y/N, we've finished the burn" There was no point into going to deep sleep as it would only take a day to get to Minmus, but you wonder how to entertain yourself... Luckily, you were allowed to bring a bock of personal items with you (After being decontaminated). You delve into that box of goodies for your JebBoy®, one of the first portable games console made by KerbTendo™. You put in "Super Jebediah Land" and started playing. "Here, take this" Valentina appeared over you with an adapter cable for your 6-pin plug to a 4-pin one compatible with the ship's electricity bank. "My way of making up for what happened in the space suit room." You smile and thank her. "Is this even allowed?" You utter in a low voice so the voices in mission control don't pick up what you're saying. "Uh, there's no rule against it, I think?" "In any case there's not much mission control can do about it now" You both laugh as you power on the console. It is coming to when you would usually go to sleep, it is standard procedure to take turns sleeping so if something goes wrong someone is awake to sort it out or if they couldn't they could wake the other person to sort it out. You take shifts being awake, for the first shift you were sleeping and Valentina was monitoring the status of the ship while playing on your JebBoy. Half way through the night you were awoken by Valentina telling you that it was your shift. With a sigh, you got up and went to your station to receive the JebBoy.


	3. Day 3

Day 3:

"Hey, Y/N, wake up! We gotta execute the burn to get into orbit around Minmus!" You clamber to your station, still half asleep... You buckle in, preparing for the kick of the RE-M3 Mainsail engine. You stare down to the rough, blue pearl that has been complimented with smooth lakes of what scientists have presumed to be crystal salt. It is impossible to tell however what it is due to the limitations of Kerbal tech, and the fact that any samples brought on board have a tendency to dissolve due to the heat of the cockpit. "It's a shame we're not landing down there, it looks so beautiful from up here." You utter in a low tone. "Are you kidding me? Minmus might look nice from up here but you'd be surprised how monotonous it gets down there, no adventure, all blue rocks, trust me I've been down there a dozen times. This mission though it might seem to you like touching down on a big rock around another planet but for me it's a huge opportunity, the first time kerbals have been outside of the gravitational influence of Kerbin. Anyway, I'm rambling... we should probably be focusing on the task ahead and conserve the only conversation we have until we get to Ike, the maneuver should be coming up in about 3 minutes." And with that you focus on your station and await the kick of the engine. "Burn initiating in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" All through the burn you monitor the remaining fuel you have in the tanks, occasionally giving updates to Valentina while she is focusing on the pitch of the craft. "Burn completed, we're now in orbit around Minmus, now for the hard part." Valentina says as she flicks a small switch, just as she does this a green light shines on your station revealing the RCS fuel counter. "Keep an eye on that, I'm sure they packed extra but keep an eye on it just in case." she says as she grasps a secondary joystick. About 30 minutes later of maneuvering and slowing down to get at it's speed, things you can't help with apart from keeping an eye on the RCS fuel counter (Needless to say it was a boring 30 minutes), you come close to the Minmus Fuel Station. "Alright, we are about 3km away from the Minmus Fuel Station now Y/N, maybe you can have a chat with it's crew about fuel." Valentina says in a joking tone. Because of the amount of fuel you had before you never really checked the RCS fuel, you checked up on it now and find it is extremely low! "Hey, Valentina, we got no RCS fuel!" you say in a panicking tone. "Shit, shit, shit... got any ideas Y/N?" As a matter of fact you do! "I have one, turn the ship around and use the engine as the force to get us closer to it slow us down when we get close to it. We can use whatever RCS fuel we have left to get closer and farther away from the docking port once we have rendezvoused with the station." You say, proud of your quick thinking. "It's worth a try... hold on, gonna turn the ship around now." About 5 minutes later you were coming up close to the Minmus Fuel Station. You feel yourself rotating as you prepare to do the second burn to slow yourself down from 145 m/h relative to the target to the same speed as the target, you're glad you have an experienced pilot at the helm. You feel the kick as you are slightly pushed forward by the force. "It worked Y/N! It worked!" Valentina stretches out her arm between your two stations and a high-five commences. "Woah, where the hell did they come from?" said a voice through the intercom. "This is Valentina Kerman requesting to dock at the MFS for refuel for the mission to Ike." said Valentina Kerman whilst pressing a few buttons on the control panel. "Request granted, welcome to the MFS Val and Y/N." You and Valentina stay the night at the MFS after successfully docking with them. You meet Bill kerman on the MFS and chat about it's construction. Fortunately for both you and Valentina, Bill and the other crew of the MFS are taking the night shift. You complete a few more levels on Super Jebediah Land and get to bed.


	4. Day 4

Day 4:

Due to the confidentiality of the mission, you were unable to disclose the true meaning of what is happening to the public. The KSP's cover up is that you were going to board the MFS and stay there as a member of it's crew, bringing with you a secondary automated lander to collect more fuel. The reason for the confidentiality was simple, the public doesn't like people in far away places due to the fear they won't come back. The backlash for even pronouncing the mission would be devastating and stop investors in the agency stop investing due to it's bad public reputation of putting kerbals at risk. This would shut the company down. So stuck between the options of never advancing or advancing with a considerable chance of this being the final advancement in anything space related done by the KSP, KSP decided to make advancements under the facade of sticking with the status quo. The public and media think we're taking another lander up to the MFS and joining it's crew. Because of the confidentiality of this mission, no cameras get into the MFS and no one can say we were ever missing from it. Once leaving the space station we said our goodbyes to the crew of the Minmus Fuel Station, and jest before I stepped through the airlock... Bill Kerman gave me a large metal box. "What's in the box?" You ask, curious to know what the KSP has in store for you this time. "Well, inside of this box there are a bunch of what we call Nano-Satellites. Just put them in the airlock and the computer should automatically flush one out every 3 months. Once in space, they act as a relay allowing you to have access to the internet from all the way out in Ike. Working on some of our probe projects I know how unreliable the system is so you may not get good internet connection all of the time depending where your satellites are. There's a catch though, you can't use it to talk to anyone. The KSP doesn't trust you to keep classified information classified... Your IP will be routed through a special proxy provided by the KSC to make it look like you are in north Kerbidia should anyone intersect your IP. Think of this as a way you can find out what is happening down on Kerbin, and remember your old buddy bill when you get to Ike okay?" You decouple from the MFS with your box of goodies provided by bill. "Whats in the box Y/N?" Valentina said, examining the box. "Oh, nothing, just our way to get internet access in Ike." You said, grinning. "You're joking, right? First you successfully save us from drifting out into space and now you get us a Kerbin Broadband Package, what can't you do Y/N?" You laugh a bit as you put the box into the airlock and hook it up to the airlock computer. On top of the box you find a disk taped under the lid with the words scribbled in black marker "Nano-Satellite dispersal program" You put the disk in the computer and it loads the program. While you were busy doing that, Valentina had plotted a course that would allow you to escape Kerbin's gravitational pull. "Buckle up Y/N, gonna burn again." You feel the kick of the mainsail once more as you get kicked forward. A small while later you feel the kick stop, you are now on an escape trajectory out of Kerbin. "Nice job, now all we gotta do is enter deep sleep, the computer knows when to wake us up when we need to do any maneuvers I've already plotted." Valentina guides you through the process of initiating "Deep Sleep" before doing it on herself shortly after. "Night, Valentina" "Night, Y/N"


End file.
